Lamborghini thief Max Wade given life for botched killing

Updated 10:34 pm, Thursday, January 23, 2014

Photo: Frankie Frost, Associated Press

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In this photo taken Tuesday Oct. 9, 2012, Max Wade appears in court in San Rafael, Calif. Prosecutors have called for more charges against a California teen accused of stealing celebrity chef Guy Fieri's Lamborghini and shooting at a couple. Marin County prosecutor Yvette Martinez-Shaw said Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012 during Max Wade's preliminary hearing that she will also ask a judge to hold Wade for trial on charges of deterring officers through threats or violence and possessing a loaded, concealed weapon he did not own. (AP Photo/Marin Independent Journal, Frankie Frost)

In this photo taken Tuesday Oct. 9, 2012, Max Wade appears in court in San Rafael, Calif. Prosecutors have called for more charges against a California teen accused of stealing celebrity chef Guy Fieri's

All eyes in the courtroom gallery turned toward Max Wade, who had been convicted of stealing a Lamborghini and trying to kill the boyfriend of a girl he liked, as the judge sentenced him Thursday to life in prison.

It was a shockingly harsh sentence for a young man who was only 16 when the first crime was committed. Everyone watched for his reaction. What they got from the 19-year-old in red-striped jail garb was nothing.

Wade, of San Rafael, sat impassively in Marin County Superior Court after prosecutors and the judge characterized him as a calculating, cold-blooded would-be murderer. Instead of showing emotion, he calmly asked Judge Kelly Vieira Simmons for permission to speak, then thanked her for giving him a fair trial.

"He's an extremely rare type of criminal," said Detective Greg Garrett, who helped capture Wade and then sat through the trial. "To see someone so young being seemingly untouched by what he has done is unusual."

Simmons rejected a motion to drop charges and hold a new trial for Wade, instead giving him the maximum sentence and adding 21 years and four months of enhancements for premeditation and use of a firearm. He will get two years credit for time served.

"He deserves it," Simmons said at the sentencing. "The crime was very, very serious. This is not a spur-of-the-moment loss of temper. This is a planned act."

Wade, who is expected to be eligible for parole in 17 or 18 years, was found guilty last year of attempted murder and shooting into a vehicle occupied by Landon Wahlstrom, 19, of Mill Valley and Eva Dedier, 18, of San Rafael. He was also convicted of auto theft and of being in possession of a stolen vehicle in connection with the daring rope-rappelling heist of celebrity chef Guy Fieri's yellow Lamborghini convertible from a San Francisco dealership.

Wade was prosecuted as an adult because of the contention that he used the stolen Lamborghini in an attempt to woo Dedier and stored it in the same storage shed where he kept the motorcycle, gun and clothing that he used in the attempted murder.

Acquitted on 2 counts

The jury nevertheless acquitted him of burglarizing the dealership and of trying to kill Dedier.

"I feel that Ms. Dedier and Mr. Wahlstrom are two of the luckiest people on Earth," Simmons said in justifying the maximum sentence. "I cannot believe they are alive. It is not Mr. Wade's fault that they are alive. He thought about the crime for months. He planned the attack carefully. That's kind of scary to see how much work Mr. Wade put into these crimes."

Wade's lawyer, Charles Dresow, said he would appeal the ruling. He has argued that Wade was a juvenile when the crimes were committed and said Wade had a difficult childhood with violence and neglect at home and should not be treated like a hardened criminal.

The life sentence is "a very sad thing," Dresow said. "He was a very lonely young man who was very intelligent and had little to no direction."

Wade's father, Michael Wade, and mother, Leylla Wade, declined to comment on the hearing, but Leylla said, "It's not over."

Wade was convicted Oct. 30 of firing five shots into Wahlstrom's pickup truck as he and Dedier sat in front of Wahlstrom's home on Evergreen Avenue in Mill Valley on April 13, 2012.

The prosecution said Wade was infatuated with Dedier - an allegation bolstered by Wade's texts saying he wanted to have sex with her - and he planned the shooting after finding out she was dating Wahlstrom.

Internet sensation

Wade became an Internet sensation - including having a rap song made about him - after he was captured and implicated in the March 8, 2011, burglary of British Motors in San Francisco. The culprit in that case rappelled from the roof of the building and made off with Fieri's $200,000 car. Sledgehammer-toting supporters tried to bust him out of jail on his 18th birthday.

Wade probably sealed his own conviction for theft when he texted pictures of the stolen car and at one point texted to a friend that it "doesn't get any better than boosting a lambo and picking up chicks at 17."

Dedier, who identified Wade in a store surveillance video, testified that she saw Wade driving the yellow Lamborghini on two occasions and assumed he was a rich kid from Tiburon. She said Wade called her "gorgeous," "babe" and "princess" and confirmed that she had told him about Wahlstrom in a text before the shooting.

Driving stolen car

Wade, who continued pursuing Dedier after the shooting, was driving Fieri's Lamborghini to meet her the day of his arrest. The jury declined to convict him of the dealership burglary after Dresow introduced evidence that the janitor may have also been there during the caper. Wade nevertheless readily admitted to probation officers after his conviction that he alone was responsible, said prosecutor Yvette Martinez.

Martinez tried to introduce evidence Thursday that Wade was plotting another "brazen, high-risk offense" involving the theft of $6 million in jewelry when he was arrested, but Simmons refused to consider the allegation.

"The life term is warranted," said Martinez, adding that the defendant has never shown remorse. "He's definitely violent and he's definitely sophisticated beyond any juvenile or adult offender. He's deeply entrenched in his criminal endeavors."

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